As I watched this child takes out and puts on the face mask a few times while sailing in a boat, I was made to ponder over how children got used to using the face mask during this COVID pandemic season!
However seeing this child play with the mask, taking it out and putting on at the suggestion of her parents, gave me a sense of the struggle that this child and most other children would have had to keep their face hidden!
It is on a face we read the story of cheerfulness or anguish, delight or sadness, surprise or sorrow! It is this which has remained hidden to others by masking our face.
We are social beings and look to each other to draw our inspiration or encouragement. The good morning we offer to each other is almost sterile as we do not have an opportunity to read the face of a person and respond appropriately. We remain hidden to each other and feel distanced on account of this.
I remembered while thinking about it, instances when I met parents with profound sorrow in their heart but not known to me due to the face mask ! For a listener or as one involved in a work where sorrow and grief is inherent to the specialty I practice, I found that I was made to stay away from sensing the mood of a family by not having an access to watching their face.
I have for the last year depended on the body language and the tone and pitch of the voice to sense if a family was in a state of unsettlement! Sometimes that gave me an indication to explore their emotional wellness. There are other times when I was not sharp enough to sense the world of sorrow in which parents spend their sojourning!
How much this masking of the face has changed us from being perceptive and relational! I telephoned ten people and asked them to find out how face covering has made them feel while talking to each other! Seven of them talked about a barrier that is created from sensing the emotional variations on the face of a listener during a conversation. It is by feeling the way how conversations impact a listener, we often modulate our voice and content of the conversations.
In fact the word 'social distancing' has been a most unthoughtful perspective, while spreading the necessity to wear a mask during the Corona pandemic. All that was needed was to emphasise on practicing 'physical distancing'! We have taken away the heart of communication, which is social connectivity and emotional reciprocity!
The pandemic has left with us many voids-one of them is an enforced indifference to know the mood and wellness or sadness of people by looking at the face. I miss the smiles on the faces of people when we exchange morning or evening greetings. I feel strange that I haver to speak without following the cues expressed in the face of people during a conversation!
This 'hiddenness' behind a mask is a social disservice! But it is a necessity for some more time!
So if video conversations have become popular, it is most natural. We long to see each other and feel connected!
I hope staying hidden from each other would not become the new 'social norm'!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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